Tuesday, 25 October 2016

ACE Inhibitors or Sartans in the Treatment of Hypertension: A Needless Discussion?

Most patients who suffer from essential arterial hypertension must be treated with a antihypertensive preparation in order to adequately control blood pressure. According to current ESH (European Society of Hypertension)/ESC (European Society of Cardiology) guidelines, physician have at their disposal five main groups of antihypertensives (as also referred to as basic antihypertensives) for use in either monotherapy or in combination: diuretics, beta-blockers (BB), calcium ion channel blockers (CaI), angiotensin convertase (ACE) inhibitors and sartans.

ACE Inhibitors


Basic antihypertensives possess very similar efficacies in terms of blood pressure reduction. When used at full dose, the average drop of systolic blood pressure(SBP) is 9.1 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) 5.5 mm Hg. However, before the initiation of pharmacotherapy, other co-morbidities , contraindications and other factors must be taken into consideration. Considering the guidelines, initiation with renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) inhibitors i.e. ACE inhibitors or sartans is mostly recommended for a majority of co-morbidities. Alpha-1 blockers should only be considered in resistant hypertension, if no contraindication exists. Methyldopa (an alpha-2 agonist) should be preferred in hypertensive pregnant women. Read more............

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